A few words from a professional procrastinator

Even though these two music games practically have the same set lists. The well established Guitar Hero managed to edge out EA’s Rock Band. Now that that’s settled, what about bringing Stan Bush as a DLC?

I don’t care which developer does it first or even both. It doesn’t bother me because I have both and have yet to finish Guitar Hero since it feels like playing all the same songs again in Rock Band 2 which includes a number of forgettable songs as well.

Please also release a utility that will read my PS2 discs so I can import them into the current version of the game and play those songs as well. Now wouldn’t that be cool!

The month of October drained my wallet quite a bit. Even with the economic downturn and the weak exchange rate, I always believed in pumping in money into the economy to keep to running even if it’s just a little bit.

It was supposed to open to November 13 and I was there for the soft opening on the 28th. It was either this or the Ugly Dolls. My brother and sister made the obvious choice, get a muppet. I ordered the Ugly Dolls online.

I’ll blog later this month as I scan the design book and my experience in general. I must say it was one of the best purchases I made this month. Mine is the one in bag on the left. She doesn’t have a name yet and I would welcome any suggestions.

And to top my October vacation experience, I got myself the new Mac Book Pro. Yes it is heavier by .1 lbs. but it is just sooo pretty. More pics and another blog post to follow as I get back to blogging.

For a lot of us who grew up in the 80s, the Transformers is one piece of our childhood that cannot be forgotten. How else can we explain the crowded movie theaters last year when Michael Bay came out with Transformers. We went there to see Optimus Prime and Megatron. How else can we show our love for those massive robots? We can immortalize them in song.

If you missed the Transformers the Movie (it’s available on Amazon), Stan Bush wrote a number of songs for the movie in true 80s rock anthem fashion.

Mike Fahey wrote to Stan Bush and asked him if there was anything he could do to help get his Transformers songs into either Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Stan Bush replied that he’d appreciate to have his games there.

So tehre you have it fans. We must help Stan Bush get “The Touch” into Rock band or Guitar Hero. I’d personally prefer “Dare” and it be available on both franchises. But this would seriously be a win.

Since no instructions were left on the Kotaku post on how to move this forward. I guess writing to both EA and Activision would be the next step.

Music subscriptions don’t work. Honestly now. How can I tell? Why is iTunes still the number one music e-tailer? Because you buy music and not rent them. It’s not an apartment and that’s exactly what they want us gamers to do. Rent music to play on our Guitar Hero since they’re not making enough money.

This isn’t some MMO that the whole game is online and runs on huge server farms in some secret data center. This is a music game where we buy music and we own them and play with them FOREVER! Is it because with every new version of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, essentially we already bought the music so it’s just fair that they make the efforts to port it to the next version? Thus not making money on the same consumer of the product.

Gamers shouldn’t support this. This is insane and ridiculous. People buy music and not rent them.

It’s finally here! Fans of the popular rhythm game can now play wherever they are on the Nintendo DS. But is it worth it? Is it worth aggravating your hand and wrist just to play ZZ Top on the bus?

As a fan of the series I decided to give it a shot. The package comes with the game and the fret bar which attaches to the GBA slot of the DS.

Unlike it’s console counterpart, it only has four buttons. So technically it should be easier, right?

Don’t worry if you have the DS phat, there’s an attachment which extends the connector. You’ll need a screwdriver to remove and attach the two screws that keep it in place.

I have smallish hands. But it felt like my hand was still too big for the device. My brother suggested to use the DS phat instead so there’s more to hold on to. But that adds weight to the already hefty keypad.

But since the DS is marketed towards kids, then it shouldn’t be a problem for young rockers.

The game itself is fun. There are no custom characters. But you can dress up the ones they give you. Some of the different modes of gameplay are career, guitar duel, practice and quickplay. Guitar duel brings the feature first introduced in GH3: Legends of Rock where you must face off with an opponent. Unlike the console, you cannot see what your opponent is doing with the exception of small status bar to tell you if your winning or losing.

The top screen has the colored fret bar while the touch screen is where the guitar is and use in included pick in strumming your tunes away.

Other than that it’s pretty much the same Guitar Hero in every way but smaller. The graphics is nothing to write home about and is pretty much really bad. But we’re not talking about graphics here, we’re talking about Guitar Hero.

The game has 25 songs in it. I’m not too sure if there’s anything left to unlock. It might be a bit too pricey for the limited number of songs. It’s great for kids (due to the size). But marathon gaming is not recommended. You spend your time looking down at your hand strumming on the tiny guitar while looking at the button sequences on a similiarly small screen. This gets very dizzying andwaters my eyes at the hard and expert level.

So final verdict?! If you’re a big fan of the series, then this is great which allows you to play on the go. But if you don’t own a DS right now, this is not the reason to buy it. Casual gamers are better of playing this on the console than on the DS. Hopefully Activision will release more tracks for this game. Unfortunately, the DS doesn’t have a storage device which means this can only be possible through another game cartridge or another version of the franchise.

The next Guitar Hero has been given a name and that is Guitar Hero IV. But should it still be called Guitar Hero since this version reportedly will include a microphone and a drum kit. Rock band only has 4 drums and a pedal. The GH version will have three drum thingies, a pedal and two “cymbals” bringing the simulation of a real drum possible.

This incarnation of the popular video game series brings a twist by being able to compose your own music as opposed to just rocking to the rhythm of others.

This is just what I need. More stuff to clutter my room. Sigh. And I’m sucker who get it when it comes out.